For the past five years, The Dan Patrick Show, a national radio show that broadcasts Monday through Friday on more than 350 U.S. affiliates, and as a TV show (of the radio show) on NBC Sports Network and DirecTV’s Audience Network, has taken the show on the road for Super Bowl Week.
Never mind football! The Dan Patrick Show Director of Radio Engineering, Jim Hibbard (Pacific Mobile Recorders/Studio Builders, Sacramento, CA) is a big Wheatstone fan. Besides building studios around the country, Jim designs and operates the pre-Super Bowl remote broadcast every year for DirecTV. “It takes about a month of pre-production to design the setup each year, which includes drawings, conference calls with the TV crew, telephone and internet providers, and packing and shipping two pallets of gear to the remote location. The heart of the operation is our Wheatstone E-1 console, which is configured specifically for The Dan Patrick Show. In the past, we’ve used the Wheatstone M1 and M2 mic processors....this year, we demo’d two M4-IPs, for the five regular guys, plus two guest positions. Everything sounded amazing and performed flawlessly!” said Jim.
Not your average remote broadcast. This year, the two-story set was built on the top of the parking structure at Pier 40 in lower Manhattan. On Friday, Wheatstone’s Jay Tyler hung out with Jim in the makeshift control room, in a trailer outside the set. “The set is so elaborate, down to the finest detail. Jay took lots of photos, but mostly of the Wheatstone gear -- and our guests that day included Sports Illustrated swimsuit models Brooklyn Decker and Chrissy Teigen!” commented Jim. The rest of the week was filled with other high profile guests, from actors Kevin Bacon and Jerry Seinfeld, to athletes Joe Montana, Dan Marino and Emmitt Smith, plus coaches, sports commentators, and several NFL players.
Oh, and we should mention that back at the DP studios in Milford, Conn., engineers at the Wheatstone E-6 console were busy playing the show open, bumper music, callers and sound effects and receiving the remote signal from NYC, then sending it out to the world!
What’s next? Jim is already thinking about what new Wheatstone goodies he’ll be taking to the show in Phoenix next year.